iCivics

I just recently taught a lesson that introduced the basic structure, role, and power of the U.S. Congress. The attached lesson plan is from the resource website icivics.com. The great part about this site is that the the lesson plans, activities and interactive games are free. As far as the lesson plans go, I have not found that I would directly follow, not that I would anyways. For example, the lesson plan that I have attached indicates that all of the lesson can be taught in one class period. While it might be possible for the students to complete all the activities sheets in 50 minutes, the lesson would not be very effective. So instead of following the lesson plan step by step I used only the Venn diagram activity on the "Work Sheet" handout and the "Primary Document Activity" handout. The students were also provided the reading handouts. As for the Venn diagram activity, I had my students complete it on mini dry erase boards with the sheet displayed on the interactive board so the students could see the statements. After the the students completed the task of matching the correct statement to the right congress chamber, we went over the diagram in class. To do this, I had students come up to the interactive projection and right the correct letter on the the projected diagram. All that was left was the "Primary Document Activity". For this the students working in pairs. As I said before, I would probably never follow any of the iCivic lesson plans verbatim, but many of the activities attached to the lesson plans are very useful. If you are a social studies teacher iCivics is a great resource.